Engagement and Metaphysical Dissatisfaction

Modality and Value

Barry Stroud

In this book, Stroud delves deeper into the fundamental metaphysical questions that he began to explore in THE QUEST FOR REALITY.

Engagement and Metaphysical Dissatisfaction

Modality and Value

Barry Stroud

Description

We all have beliefs to the effect that if a certain thing were to happen a certain other thing would happen. We also believe that some things simply must be so, with no possibility of having been otherwise. And in acting intentionally we all take certain things to be good reason to believe or do certain things. In this book Barry Stroud argues that some beliefs of each of these kinds are indispensable to our having any conception of a world at all. That means no one could consistently dismiss all beliefs of these kinds as merely ways of thinking that do not describe how things really are in the world as it is independently of us and our responses. But the unacceptability of any such negative "unmasking" view does not support a satisfyingly positive metaphysical "realism." No metaphysical satisfaction is available either way, given the conditions of our holding the beliefs whose metaphysical status we wish to understand. This does not mean we will stop asking the metaphysical question. But we need a better understanding of how it can have whatever sense it has for us. This challenging volume takes up these large, fundamental questions in clear language accessible to a wide philosophical readership.

Engagement and Metaphysical Dissatisfaction

Modality and Value

Barry Stroud

Table of Contents

Engagement and Metaphysical Dissatisfaction

Modality and Value

Barry Stroud

Author Information

Barry Stroud is Professor of Philosophy at University of California, Berkeley. He is the author of The Quest for Reality, Meaning, Understanding, and Practice, Understanding Human Knowledge, and The Significance of Philosophical Skepticism.

Engagement and Metaphysical Dissatisfaction

Modality and Value

Barry Stroud

Reviews and Awards

"Elegant, rigorous and profoundly original."--Thomas Nagel, The Times Literary Supplement

"This fascinating and deeply thought-provoking book is just the kind of thing that we have come to expect from Barry Stroud not only in its level of insight and range of concerns, but also in its general approach....this wonderful book takes discussion... to a level deeper than it has been taken before. Anyone with an interest in large metaphysical issues will derive much pleasure and much instruction from the book. I highly recommend it."--A.W. Moore, Mind